Why does it say “and Balak saw,” instead of “and Balak heard”? Did Balak, the king of Moav, really see with his eyes the war between Am Yisrael and the Emori? The Kli Yakar explains that this passuk does not refer to the war of Bnei Yisrael with Sichon and Og, the kings of the Emori, but rather regarding Yaakov Avinu, who is called Yisrael (Bereishis 32:29). After the abduction of his daughter Dina, he fought with the Emori and captured Shechem, as Yaakov described to his son Yosef (Bereishis 48:22): “I have given you one share more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Emori, with my sword and with my bow.” It is regarding this war that the passuk says “Vayar Balak,” because Balak saw the history of this war when perusing historical records, as kings in those times used to do. When he studied the outcome of the war between Yaakov and his sons and the Emori, despite them facing off with a whole nation, he became afraid of their descendents who were at the threshold of his country.
The Kli Yakar adds that when Balak saw that the reason for the miraculous victory of Yaakov was his tefillah – as Chazal explain (Bava Basra 123a) and as Onkelos explained, the word “kashti” alludes to tefillah and “charbi” to pleading –he decided to be wise and use this weapon against them. Therefore, he called upon Bilam to win this war for his nation with the power of his mouth.
